Components made of the greatest variety of materials are frequently subject in practice to high mechanical loads in the presence of corrosively flowing gases under pressure. Examples of these types of components include gas turbine blades, compressors, pipelines and CO2 injectors for oil and gas producing facilities for developing oil or gas fields. The first time new or even known materials are used in these types of components requires an assessment of the risk of failure. Previous design methods utilize characteristic values, which are derived from pure mechanical tests and pure corrosive tests. For the most part, the results are combined in such a way that the material loss or the weakening from gas erosion and gas corrosion is computed over time and a mechanical property with a risk factor is assigned to the residual material strength. This method fails when the material changes its mechanical properties or loses strength more intensely than provided for in the risk factor. The method can fail in particular if there is positive feedback between the mechanical load and the corrosion, i.e., the rate of corrosion increases under load. In the case of pressurized systems, a dependence on the total pressure is also observed. A consequence of the limitations of the known test methods is that for safety reasons the full potential of the materials used is not incorporated in the calculation of the risk of failure.
Standardized corrosion tests with simultaneous mechanical superimposition are known, in which bending or tensile stresses are observed in a corrosive fluid medium. Moreover, there are test methods that can determine a temperature-dependence of the corrosion rate. As is known, superimposing temperature, tension and load can be recorded in tensile or bending tests. Known test devices and associated test methods have other disadvantages depending on the design and application, such as:                For the most part, an additional total pressure can be applied from inside only in hollow test specimens. Manufacturing these types of test specimens is very cost-intensive.        Often the selection of the corrosive media is severely limited by the procedural steps for mechanical load initiation and the specimen holder.        Special test specimens, which are very expensive to manufacture, are used in standardized tensile tests.        Often the test specimens are heated. As a rule, this does not correspond to the technical application, for example in the case of containers and pipes.        Because of reactor walls and/or voluminous furnace devices there are only slow cooling rates.        The corrosively stressed specimen holders must be cooled intensively so that they themselves do not corrode.        
The objective of the present invention is making available a test device and a test method, which overcomes one or more of the described disadvantages of the prior art and allows improved assessment of the risk of failure of components, which are simultaneously exposed to corrosive processes and mechanical load.